


The Last Hot Pocket

by Escalus



Series: Scott McCall's Shades-of-Gray Theater [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Episode: s05e11 The Last Chimera, Friendship, Psychological Trauma, Satire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 22:15:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11171166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Escalus/pseuds/Escalus
Summary: In another episode of Scott McCall's Shades-of-Gray Theater, our players take on the subtle work of making Scott a more relatable character by giving the story a make-over.  In this case, we explore a 'more realistic' reaction to the events of the "The Last Chimera."





	The Last Hot Pocket

The Narrator is much more subdued this time when he comes out onto the stage. “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for returning to Scott McCall’s Shades-of-Gray Theater Theater. I want to promise that we have a much better showing than last time. We won’t be incorporating as much fan headcanon as we did last time. We figured it would be best for this episode to let our alternate scenes stand or fall on their own in relation to the show.”

The Narrator strikes a philosophic pose. “What do we mean when we talk about ‘shades of gray?’ We mean that neither side is complete all good nor all evil. Now, some might argue that the original Teen Wolf is shades of gray, as every character, at one point or another, has employed less-than-honorable means. But what do we know?”

“One manifestation of this is the idea that ‘emotion trumps principle.’ If you feel something strongly enough, you should be able to ignore a principle that gets in the way of that emotion. For example, many believe that Stiles’ fear of being a bad person in his father’s and Scott’s eyes more than justifies him lying about Donovan and Josh. This is Shades of Gray in action.”

“In this vignette, we decided to let the principle apply equally! If the audience wants to see emotion over-ride principle, then let us let every character act that way. We now examine what would have happened in ‘The Last Chimera’ if we let Scott act like Stiles.”

###########

Melissa McCall was exhausted by the time she got home. On top of her normal work – and God, she felt like she did everything at that hospital – she had taken special care of Noah Stilinski, whose condition was steadily growing worse for no medical reason that any of the doctors could discern. She was also worried about her son, about Stiles, and about the children that comprised her son’s pack.

She opened the door to the house. She was used to coming home, when things were bad like this, to an empty house. Frequently her son would be out until all hours of the night trying to protect the town, and she was amazed that he had manage to qualify for Advanced Placement Biology. He was somehow balancing school, sports, a job as a vet technician, and being an alpha werewolf all at the same time. And some people thought he was dumb.

She was surprised to hear the television on in the living room. Grabbing ahold of the Taser in her purse, she carefully crept out of the foyer. 

Scott was sitting on the couch, watching Walter White begging for Hank Schrader’s life in the middle of a desert. Her son had his feet up on the couch and there was a teevee tray nearby covered with an empty two-liter of Mountain Dew and several Hot Pocket wrappers.

“Hi, honey,” she called out. It made her heart a little glad to see him at home for once. “How are you doing?”

Scott grunted in response. Melissa knew her son well enough to tell that he was upset, but he was trying not to be upset. He was acting normal when he didn’t feel like it. Putting her stuff down, she came over and sat down on the couch. 

Scott used the remote to turn off the television. “This episode’s really good, Mom, but you need to see it from the start.” 

“I will.” She promised. “But you didn’t really answer my question.”

Scott grunted once again and grabbed a glass with about an inch of Mountain Dew to swallow it down.

“And since you’re recovering, maybe you shouldn’t be drinking Mountain Dew?” She suggested with a bit of scold in her voice.

“Like you care.” Scott startled as if the words had come out without him meaning to say them. He turned to her as if to apologize, but then a look of anger passed over his face and he didn’t say anything.

“Scott McCall.” Melissa brought out the mom-voice. “You want to watch your tone.”

“You left me here!” Usually, the mom-voice had been enough to settle the argument, but not this time. “You couldn’t wait to run to work and leave me here bleeding. I passed out in the upstairs hallway, and you know who found me? It wasn’t _you_! It was Parrish, because he needed my help with Lydia!”

Melissa was taken aback. “I had to go to work,” she tried to be soothing and then go for humor. “We have bills to pay, and this house sees an awful lot of damage.” 

“I was murdered, Mom. I stopped breathing. Doesn’t that merit a fucking sick day?” Scott suddenly looked horrified, because even though he was angry at her, he was still her son. Cursing in front of her was not permitted. 

They stared at each other. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that, because you’re upset. But, honey, there were people at the hospital who needed me. The sheriff is …”

Scott interrupted angrily. “I needed you, but I guess I’m going to have to get used to not being the most important person in your life, don’t I?” 

Melissa paled. “That’s not fair.” 

“It _is_ fair. I dragged myself to that hospital to help Parrish with Lydia because it’s the right thing to do. Because that’s how you taught me to be. I nearly pass out again in the elevator, but that’s okay, because it was the right thing to put others first! And then my _best friend_ ,” he sneered the words, “throws me up against the wall and climbs up top of me and I let him because, hey, he just needs to get it out of the system and maybe I deserve this because I was too busy getting murdered to save the sheriff, but hey, you know what happened next?”

Melissa reached out her hand and Scott jerked away, wincing as he did so. “You said nothing. You were standing right there and you said _nothing_.” 

“It happened so fast,” Melissa winced but not with pain. “It happened so fast I didn’t have time to say anything.” 

“I know, Mom. I know you’re not perfect. And the sheriff isn’t perfect. And everyone knows that my friends aren’t perfect, but I’m the one who is supposed to be perfect, according to you and Stiles. But I’m the one who is supposed to give everyone one hope. And if I don’t, then it’s okay for him to do that to me.” 

“I didn’t say that. I never said that.” Melissa tried to be conciliatory. Maybe telling her recently-dead son what he owed everyone else hadn’t been the best possible way to comfort him, but there wasn’t a guide book for this stuff. “It’s not okay for Stiles to do or say those things to you, but his father is dying and we don’t know why ...”

Scott lifted his shirt up so fast that he ripped it and then he tore the bandages off. Melissa realized it hadn’t healed at all since she had last scene it – twelve hours ago. God, she was such a terrible mother.

“Do you know where Kira is? No? I don’t either. I don’t know if she’ll ever come back. Liam’s out there and he tried to kill me and I don’t know if he still wants to kill me or not. Lydia’s in Eichen House. Malia’s not talking to anyone. I haven’t heard from my father for months! And we haven’t even talked about Theo or the Dread Doctors. So, if tragedy is an excuse, would you be saying the same thing if I broke Stiles’ jaw for saying those things to me? Would you?”

Melissa took a minute to consider not only what she was going to say but how she was going to say it. Scott did have a right to be angry, but she also knew that letting your anger carry you away was just as bad as letting your mistakes eat away at you. Finally, she went with the truth. “I wouldn’t. I can’t treat you the same way I treat Stiles because you aren’t the same. Yes, I hold you to a higher standard than I do him because you have power he doesn’t have. I know you didn’t want it, but that doesn’t change what’s a fact and what isn’t.”

“Yeah.” Melissa watched Scott’s eyes harden towards her. “I keep forgetting. Some of you are human.”

Melissa sat back on the couch. She never though she’s see such an emotion directed at her. Scott’s eyes were filled with betrayal. “I don’t know what you want me to do.”

“I want you to put me first. I know it’s a hard concept to grasp, you being my mother and all, but I kind of expected that.” Scott shrugged. “But you know what, now that things are clear, we can talk about something else.”

Melissa wanted to hug her son, but she also knew he was mad at her. She had to help him settle down, which meant that she had to support him. “What are you planning to do now?”

“Now? Now, I’m gonna watch some more television before I go to bed.” Scott replied. “Then I’m gonna read my biology homework before I get a good night’s sleep.” 

Melissa blinked. It’s not like she didn’t want him to do that. “But what about your pack?”

“What about them?” Scott snorted. “Do you see any of them here?”

Melissa sat back in alarm. 

“Oh, this is about giving them hope? I thought about doing what you suggested until I got my ass handed to me by my ‘best friend.’” Melissa could hear the quotation marks. “There’s nothing I can do for Kira because I don’t even know where she is until Ken gets back to me. And I’ve got a plan for Lydia.” 

Melissa let out a small breath. It wasn’t as bad as she thought. “What plan?”

“Ms. Martin and I are going to have a little talk, and I’m going to convince her that it is in Lydia’s best interest that she come home.” Scott said it firmly. “Yeah, I’m going to be showing a little fang, so be ready for that.”

“If you think that’s wise …”

“Lydia being in Eichen House isn’t wise for anyone. Ms. Martin will do as she’s told. I’m told I can be quite intimidating.” Scott was almost snarling.

“And the rest?”

Scott pointed at the front of the house. “That door is always open. They want to come back, they can come back. If they do, I’ll give them all the hope they can handle.”

“They probably won’t unless you talk to them. They’re be pretty upset.” Melissa began. “I mean they might not think you want them back.”

“Maybe I don’t? Unless you missed it, I’m pretty upset, too. Maybe I’m upset that they abandoned me, and I don’t want to go crawling on my knees to get them back.” Scott shook his head. “Both you and I forgot one important fact; they need me more than I need them. I hate quoting Peter more than anything, but he was right on occasion: I can always make more werewolves if I need to.”

“Won’t they become omegas?” Melissa asked. This was a serious question. She had tried to educate herself as much as she could about werewolves. “Isn’t that dangerous?” 

“For Liam, yeah. What do you want me to do, Mom, go look for him while I’m still hurt and just hope he doesn’t try to finish me off? I’m not going to frickin’ apologize for him trying to kill me. Any debt I had to him because I bit him to save his life is now pretty much taken care of. He knows where to find me, and I don’t feel like using the alpha power to make him obey.” Scott started picking up the trash from the tray. “Malia is a werecoyote. Her being in the pack was always optional.”

Scott took his trash into the kitchen. Melissa could hear him putting it away in the kitchen. She also noticed that he didn’t bring up Stiles. She wondered if his limit had been reached, if all the crap he had been putting up with since sophomore year had finally grown too much for him, and he was done with it all. Part of her had always imagined there would be a limit. She guess she couldn’t blame him, really.

When he came back in, she asked very carefully. “Did you and Stiles meet with Theo? I’m sure you don’t want to talk about it, but Noah’s condition is still worsening.”

“Oh, yeah. It was _fantastic_.” Scott said bitterly. “I mean that Theo gloated for a bit and then went away, while Stiles decided to be even more of an ungrateful ass. Whoops, I cursed again.”

“I don’t care about Theo. Did you find anything about the sheriff?”

“Yeah. Theo didn’t expect him to be that hurt, so it looked like it wasn’t Theo who attacked him. It was another chimera. No idea who or where he could be.”

“Then where’s Stiles now?” Melissa had to ask.

As she expected, Scott actually flashed his eyes at her. “He’s out there looking for the chimera. He probably has ideas, but he didn’t see fit to share them with me.”

“You let him go look for a chimera by himself?” Melissa stood up. “I know you’re mad at him, but he’s just human. What if he runs into this person? Or Theo? Or the Dread Doctors?”

“Wait a minute!” Scott protested. “Stiles wanted to go by himself, and I should always listen to whatever Stiles tells me to do, right? Stiles is always right! I mean, he was right about Theo even though he was shouting at people and he had no proof but a signature! So, he wanted to go by himself, and I let him go by himself. If he gets hurt, well, I’m sure he’ll find some way to blame me for that.”

“Scott’s, he’s just human. He’s defenseless.”

“You forgot sarcasm!” Scott threw back at her. 

“Scott, no matter how angry you two are at each other …”

“He tried to run me over! He locked me out of the car and tried to run me over!” Scott shouted. “Or are you going to say that he was just upset, and he has a right to be upset and he should be able to run me over if he’s upset enough!”

“You shouldn’t let him be out there alone because it’s the right thing to do.”

“Maybe I’m tired of doing the right thing all the time so everyone can blame me when things go wrong. Maybe Stiles can get to be the hero like he always wanted! If you care about him so much, why don’t _you_ go out and look for him?”

Melissa frowned. “Scott, he’s your best friend …”

“No.” Scott laughed bitterly. “Theo said that too: ‘Is he still really your best friend?’ It was supposed to drive make Stiles angrier at me, but I think it worked in reverse. I don’t know what Stiles thinks and I don’t care. But any person I called my best friend wouldn’t lie to me about Donovan. I would like to say that anyone who was my best friend wouldn’t beat me up over something I didn’t do, but I let Stiles do it for years, so maybe that’s not true. But, anyway, maybe I don’t want to be his best friend anymore. Because, you know what? People actually _like_ me. I can find a new best friend. I don’t have to put up with his bullshit.”

Melissa sighed as Scott started to go upstairs to his bedroom. The boys’ friendship wasn’t going to be fixed by her. She wasn’t sure it would be fixed at all. But she knew that Scott would come out okay, because he was right – people actually liked him, while they tolerated Stiles’ tongue. She hated that it would end like this, though. “Is there anything I can do?”

Scott stopped hallway up. “Yeah. Just remember the next time you run to the store, I ate the last Hot Pocket.”

#################

The Narrator leads the small audience in clapping! He looks so relieved that this wasn’t a total flop, only a minor flop. “Isn’t that so much better? Isn’t that so much more realistic? Isn’t that what the audience wants to see, people putting their own feelings first rather than silly principles?”

“And we have a parallel, which I know that the fans of Teen Wolf like! On the one hand we have Stiles accidentally murdered Donovan and having his father get critically injured, so he gets to lie and lash out at everyone because he’s emotionally compromised. And on the other hand, we have Scott having been murdered by Theo and abandoned by his pack, so he gets to neglect his responsibilities and lash out at his mother because he's emotionally compromised. Parallels!” 

“Of course, this version of events might not work out very well for Stiles. After all, he may not be able to find Noah Patrick, which means that his father will die. Or, he might find Noah Patrick through some means we can’t discern, and the chimera murders him and his father still dies. But, hey, at least Scott McCall isn’t trapped in his black-and-white world anymore.”

**Author's Note:**

> I made this between Melissa and Scott because it burns my biscuits that Stiles has had more than double the scenes with his father than Scott and Melissa had in Seasons 4, 5, and 6. Hell, Stiles had more scenes with Melissa than Scott did in 5B.


End file.
